Hair coloring systems currently available on the market typically comprise a series of capped dye tubes, such as collapsible aluminum tubes, each containing a different color high-viscosity paste, or a bottle-type container holding a liquid. During the hair coloring process, a stylist dispenses the desired amount of a particular base pigment into a mixing receptacle. Additional pigments must be dispensed and mixed with the base to achieve a desired color. A developer or fixing agent will be added as well. Once the pigments and developer dispensed and blended, the mixture may be applied to a client's hair.
These hair coloring systems have several drawbacks. When adding color from a tube, a user is prompted to “squeeze to a line,” wherein it is impossible to identify small amounts, such as milliliters. Because hair dye is obtained by hand from tubes or bottles, it is impossible to know the quantity of a particular pigment dispensed. Dyes must be measured accurately since a change of even 0.1 ml can alter the hue of a color mixture from one batch to the next. Independent studies have found that the best efforts using tube markings were only accurate to +/−50% of the total volume. The accuracy of color dispensed with a syringe fitted at its open end with a nozzle or tubing is to within +/−1% of the total volume. Accurate measuring equipment, which is common in a laboratory setting, is rarely found in conventional salons. For this reason, precise reformulation/duplication of a color can be difficult if not impossible.
The bottles and tubes from which colors are dispensed are also not easily organized in a salon setting. Due to the speed at which hair professionals work and the numerous clients on which they work over the course of a given day, containers usually end up haphazardly thrown in drawers or on shelves, forcing stylists to search for a desired color among many disorganized dyes.
Furthermore, because of the nature of aluminum tubes, i.e., capped cylinders similar to toothpaste tubes, it is difficult to dispense all of the dye from a single tube, resulting in wasted product. Approximately 25% of the product in a typical dye tube may be wasted due to a user's inability to completely dispense the product, or through drying and discoloration caused by oxidation of the dye from leaving off the cap. Tube-based dyes are also high in viscosity which makes them difficult to manage.
Some attempts have been made to solve these problems. U.S. Pat. No. 7,407,055 to Rodriquez discloses a hair roots coloring kit, including a squeeze tube of hair dye and measuring devices such as syringes, a measuring cup and a pipette for establishing a dye quantity. In particular, a syringe may be inserted into a squeeze tube to retrieve hair dye. This invention contemplates conventional aluminum or similar hair dye squeeze tubes, and a dye comprising a viscous, high viscosity paste. For this reason, the dye must be pushed into a syringe by compressing the dye tube, rather than extracting dye with the syringe plunger. Furthermore there is no sealing arrangement between the tube and syringe, so that users must maintain them together under manual pressure to avoid leakage. Additionally, since there is no oxygen barrier between the syringe and the distribution end of the dye tube when uncapped, oxidation will occur.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,963,303 to Saranow, et al. discloses a hair dye apparatus and method having a computer screen for selecting a color from a color palette, and a dye quantity. The apparatus indicates the dyes a user will mix, and the user dispenses the dyes in a bowl atop a small electronic scale. While this apparatus keeps individual color containers separate and organized, it is bulky, complicated to use, and lacks the accuracy needed for professional applications. Also, it fails to solve the problem of wasted product.
U.S. Pat. Publication No. 2012/0048880 to Damolaris also discloses a dispensing apparatus for hair dye. In Damolaris, a user enters information relating to a desired color using a computer terminal, and the apparatus dispenses a predetermined amount of developer. While this apparatus presumably dispenses all of the dye in a container, it requires an expensive computer processor and substantial user training to operate. This invention fails to teach measurement or dispensing color. Rather, it's sole function is to measure developer.
For these reasons, commercial hair dye systems as known in the art are both wasteful and prone to error. Consequently, there is a need for a hair coloring system for commercial salons and professional stylists that allows users to accurately measure the pigments they use, and which also allows users to extract virtually all of a dye product from its packaging. Further, there is a need for a system that remains organized, allowing stylists to quickly and easily find colors to mix.